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Thursday, June 2, 2016

The Templeborough Biomass Power Plant project continues to make rapid progress, not only has the Rotherham skyline changed with the construction of the power plant, but now a new bridge is being installed across the River Don at the site.

Construction began on the £150m biomass-fired power plant project in November last year. The Brite Partnership secured planning permission in 2010 for the development at the Firth Rixson Ickles Works at Templeborough where land and disused buildings where purchased in March 2011. The plant will generate heat and power from carbon-neutral renewable wood pellet fuel.

In 2015 it was announced that Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CI) had acquired 100% of the project for £150m and created Templeborough Biomass Power Plant Limited to take the development forward.

Babcock & Wilcox Vølund A/S, the Danish subsidiary of the giant US Babcock & Wilcox Company, will design, manufacture and operate the plant, with Interserve responsible for its construction.

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The old bridge on the site of the has been lifted out and a new bridge has been craned into position. The new bridge was lifted in as a single piece and weighs a mighty 153 tonnes and is over 49m long. The bridge has been assembled at the site during May by Reid Steel from Christchurch in Dorset.

Tim Forrest, general manager of the project said: "Building, transporting and installing a bridge of this magnitude is a huge task, but it is a key element to completing the Templeborough Biomass Power Plant, so it is ready to generate clean and green electricity in August 2017.

"Choosing the best time to carry out the bridge swap has been challenging, but all agreed the perfect time is when the traffic is at it lightest and will cause least disruption to road users and residents alike, so the Spring Bank holiday weekend at the end of May was chosen.

"It has been a great team effort by Reid, Interserve and its subcontractors, in particular Moortown, a local civil engineering company from Leeds, to get ready on time for this remarkable spectacle which was planned way back in late 2015 to take place this weekend."

The plant, which is set to open in August 2017, will generate around 41MW of green electricity every year which is enough to supply 78,000 homes and save over 150,000 tons of CO2.

As part of the approved plans, timber pre-treatment activities are set to be undertaken on land on the Shenker rail sidings site with a conveyor system set to take the wood pellets over Sheffield Road to the CHP plant on the Firth Rixson site.